With a massive TV audience of 3.7 million viewers (peak), last night’s World Darts Championship saw the most watched non-football event on Sky Sports ever. Prior to that, the previous record for a darts final was 1.65 million (peak) in January 2015, when Gary Anderson beat 16 time world champion Phil Taylor.
There’s no doubt the success of last night’s final had something to do with ‘16’ year old sensation Luke Littler, who has single-handedly peaked the UK’s interest in the World Darts Championship. Not only has he stunned the nation with his unbelievable talent, but also by achieving such stunning results at such a young age.
World Darts Championship Final Stats
Last night’s final was aired on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Arena between 7:30pm -11pm , peaking at 2 million and 1.7 million, respectively.
During the Darts match (around 8.15pm) the average audience across SKYSPME and SKYSPAR was 2.9 million.
On average, 500 thousand AD1634’s watched the final.
Average audience split by age: 25% AD1634, 36% AD3554, 40% AD55+.
Average audience split: 61% Men and 60% ABC1AD.
Sky Sports ME/AR v. All other channels
All Channel Impacts between 1930 – 2350
Sky Sports Main Event delivered an 8.7% share of all TV viewers between 20:00-23:00, beating BBC2, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Between 20:05 – 21:30, Sky Sports ME and Arena combined recorded the second highest impacts across all linear stations, just falling short off ITV1’s Coronation Street. Yet, became the top deliver between 21:35-22:00.
The darts final also delivered significantly higher impacts compared to last year’s final.
Although Luke Littler was beaten by Luke Humphries (7-4) in the Finals, Littler has had a huge following throughout the tournament.
The Darts semi-finals saw an average 1.5 million viewers and 2.4 million peak across Sky Sport ME & AR (c. +165% compared to last year’s).
Before breaking the darts viewing record during the finals, the semi-final match on 2nd Jan had already hit a record, beating the highest viewed semi-final set in 2017 by 106%.
This has beaten the previous darts Final record by 40% (average).
The viewing statistics for this event speak for themselves. It was a winner for Darts and for Sky Sports. Despite the event being aired behind Sky’s subscriber paywall, millions tuned-in. The power of such live and one-off events is obvious. By extension, it demonstrates how content really is king. It seems we humans continue to love a compelling story. Luke Littler’s fairy-tale, culminating in a first World Championship Darts Final, suggests three important lessons for advertisers:
Platforms and technology matter less than the quality of output and utility they provide to consumers. Audiences will seek out the good stuff.
Advertisers should remember to beware of “shiny-new-toy-syndrome.” Assess paid media opportunities purely on their ability to deliver audiences and performance, in relevant and strong environments. Consider and test new routes to market, but not at the expense of proven ones which continue to deliver for a business. Don’t use a channel just because it is flavour of the month or year or held up as “the future. Compelling short-term or unique opportunities always present themselves and can provide fantastic media value for an advertiser … but only if they can be identified and acted upon quickly. An agile mindset and media partner is imperative.
